290 Smart Grid Communication Network and Its Applications
typically leads to a prolonged OSA procedure because of customer absences
(e.g., customers are at work or in bed). In addition, the accuracy of the outage
scoping analysis results are affected by the number of trouble calls received.
In practical terms, the length of time it takes the utility to send a crew into
the field often relies on the confirmation of an outage, which may take hours.
The OSA function can be greatly enhanced with the installation of the
AMI in the distribution network. Smart meter data from the AMI system can
transmit additional outage information to the OSA. In particular, the “last
gasp” sent by smart meters before they lose power during an outage event not
only carries